The week before, however, it was raw sushi late Wednesday that ultimately kept Anderson off the field.

He was vomiting most of that Thursday and needed to go to the hospital the next day. Anderson didn't make the trip to Beaumont, where Lamar defeated West Brook 26-14.

"I was at home throwing up," he said. "I wanted to go. I wanted my coach to bring my pads. It was pretty bad. I don't want to get into graphic details, but it was pretty rough."

Being out with food poisoning was bad enough, Anderson said, but it wasn't the worst part.

"I don't want to let my team down, and me not going, I kind of felt like I let them down," he said.

Back on the field Friday, Anderson wasted little time making an impact. With the Elsik offense driving the length of the field on its opening drive, the Rams fumbled inches away from crossing the goal line.

The football rolled into the end zone, and Anderson pounced on it.

"Basically, right spot, right time," he said. "It went under him, and I grabbed it. Thank God, because we were in horrible field position."

Lamar held Elsik to a field goal until nine minutes remained in the game. The defense forced five punts and went through a stretch of five possessions in which Elsik gained only one first down.

Anderson ended one of those drives with a sack on third down midway through the second quarter.

"They gave us a few tricks in the beginning, but we caught up," Anderson said.

"We had a few screw-ups, but then we caught up, and we played the way we play.